Joint Expeditionary Force – Capability Architecture

Problem Space: The Joint Expeditionary Force is the UK MOD’s response to committing troops on a number of different operations. These operations vary from Non Combatant Evacuation operations to Complex Multinational, Multi Agency War Fighting. The complexity demanded varies between these operations. The more complex operations involved thousands of different troops, civilian personnel, weaponry and IT systems. One operation is difficult enough but what are the training, procurement, interoperability and support issues on multiple concurrent operations.

Solution: In order to understand and plan such support, ASYSTSU were tasked with building an Operational Capability Architecture that would enable various MOD departments to understand their requirements given a number of scenarios. This assisted in identifying gaps, overlaps, inconsistencies and areas for further deep investigation and planning. It began with analysing the operations and ensuring adequate military estimates were conducted on a representative military operational plan. This then identified the various ‘Mission Threads’ of activity that would be undertaken, which were then split in to their component Operational Activities and an Information Flow Analysis was undertaken for each one.

Result: This task has generated one of the most detailed and usable, fully contextualised repositories of military activity in NATO. Enabling the MOD’s primary IT organisation (Joint Force Command – Information Systems and Services) to generate a detailed user requirement. In addition to generating substantiated service architecture for the entire MOD. Enabling Joint Force Command to thoroughly investigate decisions of which force elements to commit on which operations, this helps dramatically in identifying appropriate tools and training in advance.